The present invention relates generally to the field of display systems. More particularly, the application describes one or more reflective structures for use with a display's backlight system.
A light emitting diode (LED) array can be used in conjunction with a liquid crystal display (LCD) to display images. Depending on the voltage applied to the LCD pixel, variable amounts of the light generated by the LED may be transmitted through the LCD pixel. The light passing through the LCD forms an image observable by a viewer.
In many cases, the LCD requires input light to be within a certain angle of incidence. It also requires good uniformity in both angular and spatial distribution of the light at its input facet. The light that comes out of an LED array has a large angular distribution and will normally need be controlled on its way to the LCD in order to meet such demands. And such backlight control should not cause too much loss of light. A poorly designed control may result in a less-than-desirable spatial/angular uniformity (e.g., the spatial/angular distribution of the incidence of light rays along the LCD) and illumination efficiency (e.g., the output luminance on the LCD per the power provided by the LED array). One way to increase luminance is to increase the driving power of the LED array. However, this may result in the generation of excessive heat in the display system. Also, this does not result in an efficiency improvement because extra power is required to generate the extra luminance. Also, increasing the driving power does not necessarily improve the spatial uniformity and angular distribution.
Therefore, there is a need for a display's backlight system that results in improving illumination efficiency, spatial uniformity, and angular distribution.
It would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the aforementioned needs.